Sensing Distant Nuclear Spins with a Single Electron Spin

Kolkowitz, Shimon; Unterreithmeier, Quirin; Bennett, Steven; Lukin, Mikhail D.

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.109.137601

Cited by 205 publications

(329 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Precision metrology has already been demonstrated for DC and AC fields [9][10][11][12][13][14] , spins within the diamond lattice [15][16][17][18] and surface spins 19 . Here, we demonstrate sensing and imaging of stochastic magnetic fluctuations originating from freely diffusing electron spins such as paramagnetic oxygen (O 2 , S ¼ 1), MnCl 2 (S ¼ 5/2) and Gadolinium ions (Gd 3 þ , S ¼ 7/2) in liquids, immobilized in polymers and linked specifically to cellular structures.…”

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confidence: 99%

Magnetic spin imaging under ambient conditions with sub-cellular resolution

Steinert¹,

Ziem²,

et al. 2013

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The detection of small numbers of magnetic spins is a significant challenge in the life, physical and chemical sciences, especially when room temperature operation is required. Here we show that a proximal nitrogen-vacancy spin ensemble serves as a high precision sensing and imaging array. Monitoring its longitudinal relaxation enables sensing of freely diffusing, unperturbed magnetic ions and molecules in a microfluidic device without applying external magnetic fields. Multiplexed charge-coupled device acquisition and an optimized detection scheme permits direct spin noise imaging of magnetically labelled cellular structures under ambient conditions. Within 20 s we achieve spatial resolutions below 500 nm and experimental sensitivities down to 1,000 statistically polarized spins, of which only 32 ions contribute to a net magnetization. The results mark a major step towards versatile subcellular magnetic imaging and real-time spin sensing under physiological conditions providing a minimally invasive tool to monitor ion channels or haemoglobin trafficking inside live cells.

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confidence: 99%

Magnetic spin imaging under ambient conditions with sub-cellular resolution

Steinert¹,

Ziem²,

et al. 2013

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“…[18][19][20] As a result, the NV centers have attracted much attention as prospective qubits for quantum information processing, 4,7,15,16,[21][22][23][24][25] and as nanoscale sensors. 20,[26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38] Efficiency of the NV-based devices critically depends on the NV spin coherence time, which is controlled by the coupling to the spins of substitutional nitrogen atoms and/or to the bath of 13 C nuclear spins. In order to decouple the NV spin from the decohering environment, many pulse-based dynamical decoupling protocols have been investigated and proven efficient.…”

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confidence: 99%

Decay of the rotary echoes for the spin of a nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond

Mkhitaryan

Dobrovitski

2014

Phys. Rev. B

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We study dynamics of the electron spin of a nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center subjected to a strong driving field with periodically reversed direction (train of rotary echoes). We use analytical and numerical tools to analyze in detail the form and timescales of decay of the rotary echo train, modeling the decohering spin environment as a random magnetic field. We demonstrate that the problem can be exactly mapped onto a model of spin 1 coupled to a single bosonic mode with imaginary frequency. This mapping allows comprehensive analytical investigation beyond the standard BlochRedfield-type approaches. We explore the decay of the rotary echo train under assumption of strong driving, and identify the most important regimes of the decay. The analytical results are compared with the direct numerical simulations to confirm quantitative accuracy of our study. We present the results for realistic environment of substitutional nitrogen atoms (P1 centers), and provide a simplified but accurate description for decay of the rotary echo train of the NV center's spin. The approach presented here can also be used to study decoherence and longitudinal relaxation of other spin systems under conditions of strong driving.

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“…This complementary approach has become a realistic prospect since recent research has established the nitrogenvacancy center, a color defect in diamond 11 , as a candidate system for this scheme 12,13 . This center serves as an atomic-sized magnetic field sensor, which has proven sufficiently sensitive to detect the field of single nuclear spins in its diamond lattice environment [14][15][16] as well as ensembles of 10-10 4 spins in a nanometer-sized sample volume on the diamond surface [17][18][19] .…”

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Nanoscale nuclear magnetic imaging with chemical contrast

et al. 2015

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Scanning probe microscopy is one of the most versatile windows into the nanoworld, providing imaging access to a variety of sample properties, depending on the probe employed.Tunneling probes map electronic properties of samples 1 , magnetic and photonic probes image their magnetic and dielectric structure 2,3 while sharp tips probe mechanical properties like surface topography, friction or stiffness 4 . Most of these observables, however, are accessible only under limited circumstances. For instance, electronic properties are measurable only on conducting samples while atomic-resolution force microscopy requires careful preparation of samples in ultrahigh vacuum 5,6 or liquid environments 7 .Here we demonstrate a scanning probe imaging method that extends the range of accessible quantities to label-free imaging of chemical species operating on arbitrary samples -including insulating materials -under ambient conditions. Moreover, it provides three-dimensional depth information, thus revealing subsurface features. We achieve these results by recording nuclear magnetic resonance signals from a sample surface with a recently introduced scanning probe, a single nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond. We demonstrate NMR imaging with 10 nm resolution and achieve chemically specific contrast by separating fluorine from hydrogen rich regions.Our result opens the door to scanning probe imaging of the chemical composition and atomic structure of arbitrary samples. A method with these abilities will find widespread application in material science even on biological specimens down to the level of single macromolecules.The development of a scanning probe sensor able to image nuclear spins has been a long and outstanding goal of nanoscience, proposed shortly after the invention of scanning probe microscopy itself 8 . To date, this goal is most closely met by magnetic resonance force microscopy (MRFM), an extension of atomic-force-microscopy with sensitivity to spins, which has successfully imaged nanoscale distributions of nuclear spins in three dimensions 9 .However, its operation is experimentally challenging, requiring low (sub-Kelvin) temperature and long (weeks/image) acquisition times, which has so far precluded its adoption as a routine technique. To surmount these problems, single electron spins with optical readout capability have been proposed as an alternative local probe for spin distributions 10 . This complementary approach has become a realistic prospect since recent research has established the nitrogenvacancy center, a color defect in diamond 11 , as a candidate system for this scheme 12,13 . This center serves as an atomic-sized magnetic field sensor, which has proven sufficiently sensitive to detect the field of single nuclear spins in its diamond lattice environment [14][15][16] as well as ensembles of 10-10 4 spins in a nanometer-sized sample volume on the diamond surface [17][18][19] .Here we employ a single NV center as a scanning probe to image distributions of nuclear spins in an external sample. All our ...

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Sensing Distant Nuclear Spins with a Single Electron Spin

Cited by 205 publications

References 28 publications

Magnetic spin imaging under ambient conditions with sub-cellular resolution

Magnetic spin imaging under ambient conditions with sub-cellular resolution

Decay of the rotary echoes for the spin of a nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond

Nanoscale nuclear magnetic imaging with chemical contrast

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